Practice Midterm

Name: ___________________________________ Date: ______________

1. Arguments as to whether psychological differences between men and women result from
biological or social influences most clearly involve a debate over the issue of
A) evolution versus natural selection.
B) stage development versus continuous development.
C) structuralism versus functionalism.
D) behavior versus mental processes.
E) nature versus nurture.
2. A theoretical perspective in psychology can be like a two-dimensional view of a threedimensional object because each perspective is
A) limited in its scope.
B) likely to contradict other perspectives.
C) based on assumptions shared by other perspectives.
D) of little value for applied research.
E) impossible to test scientifically.
3. Who highlighted the reproductive advantages of environmentally adaptive traits?
A) Plato
B) Aristotle
C) John Locke
D) Charles Darwin
E) William James
4. Which of the following approaches dominated American psychology for the first half of the
20th century?
A) structuralism
B) functionalism
C) behaviorism
D) reductionism
5. Key figures in the development of behaviorism include:
A) Wundt, Titchener, and James.
B) James, Watson, and Calkins.
C) Maslow, Freud, and Rogers.
D) Watson, Pavlov, and Skinner.

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6. Of the following correlation coefficients, which represents the strongest relationship

between two factors?
A) -.15
B) +.03
C) +.38
D) -.80
7. The research method that is used to demonstrate a cause-and-effect relationship between
changes in one variable and the effects on another variable is called:
A) the descriptive method.
B) the correlational method.
C) the experimental method.
D) the meta-analytic method.
8. A correlational study:
A) examines how strongly two variables are related to one another.
B) can be used to establish a cause-and-effect relationship.
C) is no longer allowed under today's ethical guidelines.
D) has little utility, since it is merely descriptive.
9. Neurotransmitters are released from vesicles located on knoblike terminals at the end of the
A) dendrites.
B) cell body.
C) axon.
D) myelin sheath.
E) synapse.
10. The slowdown of neural communication in multiple sclerosis involves a degeneration of the
A) amygdala.
B) dendrites.
C) corpus callosum.
D) myelin sheath.
E) pituitary gland.
11. Neurotransmitters are chemical messengers that travel across the
A) cell body.
B) synaptic gap.
C) axon.
D) myelin sheath.
E) threshold.

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12. The peripheral nervous system is to sensory neurons as the central nervous system is to
A) motor neurons.
B) neurotransmitters.
C) interneurons.
D) the sympathetic nervous system.
E) the parasympathetic nervous system.
13. A football quarterback can simultaneously make calculations of receiver distances, player
movements, and gravitational forces. This best illustrates the activity of multiple
A) endocrine glands.
B) endorphin agonists.
C) neural networks.
D) endorphin antagonists.
E) reticular formations.
14. The knee-jerk reflex is controlled by interneurons in the
A) limbic system.
B) spinal cord.
C) brainstem.
D) cerebellum.
E) frontal lobe.
15. An area at the rear of the frontal lobes that controls voluntary movements is called the
A) angular gyrus.
B) hypothalamus.
C) motor cortex.
D) reticular formation.
E) frontal association area.
16. Addictive drug cravings are likely to be associated with reward centers in the
A) thalamus.
B) cerebellum.
C) reticular formation.
D) limbic system.
E) angular gyrus.
17. Which of the following is the component of the limbic system that plays an essential role in
the processing of new memories?
A) hypothalamus
B) thalamus
C) hippocampus
D) medulla
E) cerebellum
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18. The McGurk effect best illustrates

A) phantom limb sensations.
B) the rubber-hand illusion.
C) tinnitus.
D) sensory interaction.
E) color constancy.
19. The discovery that high-frequency sounds trigger large vibrations near the beginning of the
basilar membrane supports the ________ theory.
A) gate-control
B) frequency
C) Young-Helmholtz
D) opponent-process
E) place
20. Cones and rods are to vision as ________ are to audition.
A) eardrums
B) cochleas
C) oval windows
D) hair cells
E) semicircular canals
21. The amount of light entering the eye is regulated by the
A) lens.
B) iris.
C) retina.
D) optic nerve.
E) feature detectors.
22. The minimum amount of stimulation a person needs to detect a stimulus 50 percent of the
time is called the
A) adaptation threshold.
B) difference threshold.
C) subliminal threshold.
D) absolute threshold.
E) change threshold.

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23. Photographs of people were rated more positively if the photos immediately followed a
briefly flashed image of kittens. This best illustrates the impact of
A) sensory adaptation.
B) interposition.
C) retinal disparity.
D) priming.
E) prosopagnosia.
24. When informed that a brief imperceptible message would be flashed repeatedly during a
popular TV program, many viewers reported feeling strangely hungry or thirsty during the
show. Since the imperceptible message had nothing to do with hunger or thirst, viewers'
strange reactions best illustrate
A) the McGurk effect.
B) sensory adaptation.
C) the volley principle.
D) a placebo effect.
E) accommodation.
25. Those who believe in the value of subliminal audiotapes would be wrong to claim that
A) people are capable of parallel processing.
B) signal detection is influenced by a person's motivational state.
C) unconsciously processed information is unusually persuasive.
D) sensory transduction can occur without conscious awareness.
E) any of these are true.
26. At 3 o'clock in the morning, John has already slept for 4 hours. As long as his sleep
continues, we can expect an increasing occurrence of
A) sleeptalking.
B) hypnagogic sensations.
C) muscle tension.
D) REM sleep.
E) Stage 4 sleep.
27. Under hypnosis, Mrs. Mohammed is encouraged by her therapist to vividly experience and
describe the details of an argument she had with her father when she was a child. The
therapist is employing a technique called
A) age regression.
B) posthypnotic suggestion.
C) paradoxical sleep.
D) dissociation.
E) posthypnotic amnesia.

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28. Studies of marijuana's effects indicate that

A) daily use of the drug is currently higher than it has ever been among high school seniors.
B) regular users may achieve a high with less of the drug than occasional users.
C) regular usage has no serious negative effects on physical health.
D) usage consistently reduces feelings of anxiety and depression.
E) marijuana is the most commonly used psychoactive drug in North America.
29. A person who falls asleep in the midst of a heated argument probably sufferes from:
A) sleep apnea
B) narcolepsy
C) night terrors
D) insomnia
30. Studies of latent learning highlight the importance of
A) primary reinforcers.
B) respondent behavior.
C) spontaneous recovery.
D) cognitive processes.
E) conditioned reinforcers.
31. On Monday, Johnny's mother gave him cookies and milk after he had played quietly for 10
minutes. On Tuesday, she required 20 minutes of quiet play before treat time, and on
Wednesday, the cookies were given to him only after a full half hour of quiet play. Johnny
was taught to play quietly for extended periods through
A) latent learning.
B) secondary reinforcement.
C) partial reinforcement.
D) shaping.
E) modeling.
32. Bandura's experiments indicate that ________ is important in the process of learning.
A) shaping
B) generalization
C) modeling
D) respondent behavior
E) secondary reinforcement

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33. If rats are allowed to wander through a complicated maze, they will subsequently run the
maze with few errors when a food reward is placed at the end. Their good performance
demonstrates
A) shaping.
B) latent learning.
C) delayed reinforcement.
D) spontaneous recovery.
E) modeling.
34. After pigs learned to pick up and deposit wooden coins in a piggy bank, the pigs
subsequently dropped the coins repeatedly and pushed them with their snouts. This best
illustrates the importance of ________ in operant conditioning.
A) conditioned reinforcement
B) spontaneous recovery
C) latent learning
D) generalization
E) biological predispositions
35. Mr. Zandee has stopped smoking because he wants to model healthy behavior patterns for
his children. Mr. Zandee is apparently aware of the importance of ________ in his
children's development.
A) shaping
B) observational learning
C) generalization
D) delayed reinforcement
E) spontaneous recovery
36. Skinner is to shaping as Bandura is to
A) punishing.
B) extinguishing.
C) discriminating.
D) modeling.
E) generalizing.
37. The cognitive perspective would be likely to emphasize that classical conditioning depends
on
A) an organism's active behavioral responses to environmental stimulation.
B) the amount of time between the presentation of the CS and the US.
C) how frequently an organism is exposed to an association of a CS and a US.
D) an organism's expectation that a US will follow a CS.
E) the expectation of a reward for behavior being fulfilled.

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38. When an eyewitness to an auto accident is asked to describe what happened, which test of
memory is being used?
A) reconstruction
B) recognition
C) rehearsal
D) recall
E) relearning
39. To recognize the active information processing that occurs in short-term memory,
researchers have characterized it as ________ memory.
A) iconic
B) working
C) flashbulb
D) implicit
E) repressed
40. When first introduced to someone, Marcel effectively remembers the person's name by
repeating it to himself several times. Marcel makes use of a strategy called
A) chunking.
B) automatic processing.
C) the method of loci.
D) the next-in-line effect.
E) rehearsal.
41. In an effort to remember how to spell rhinoceros, Samantha spells the word aloud 30
times. She is using a technique known as
A) priming.
B) rehearsal.
C) the peg-word system.
D) chunking.
E) the method of loci.
42. Marlene forgot to bring a pillow on the camping trip, so she spent a very uncomfortable and
restless night. Unfortunately, she never thought of using her down-filled jacket as a pillow.
Marlene's oversight best illustrates
A) confirmation bias.
B) belief perseverance.
C) functional fixedness.
D) the availability heuristic.
E) overconfidence.

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43. Logical, methodical step-by-step procedures for solving problems are called
A) heuristics.
B) semantics.
C) prototypes.
D) algorithms.
E) fixations.
44. Our tendency to judge the likelihood of an event on the basis of how readily we can
remember instances of its occurrence is called the
A) framing effect.
B) belief perseverance phenomenon.
C) confirmation bias.
D) representativeness heuristic.
E) availability heuristic.
45. Which of the following best accounts for people's greater fear of commercial air flights than
of driving an automobile?
A) perceived control
B) functional fixedness
C) the framing effect
D) category hierarchies
E) representativeness heuristic
46. The importance of romance in marriage relationships is most strongly emphasized in
cultures characterized by
A) gender schemas.
B) collectivism.
C) gender-typing.
D) individualism.
E) gender stereotypes.
47. Evolutionary psychologists would be most likely to attribute gender differences in attitudes
toward casual sex to the fact that men have ________ than do women.
A) larger bodies
B) stronger gender identity
C) a weaker sense of empathy
D) greater reproductive potential
E) more insecurities

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48. A child's temperament is likely to be

A) difficult to observe.
B) stable over time.
C) a product of parenting style.
D) a reflection of his or her gender schema.
E) different as an infant than as a teenager.
49. The personalities of adopted children
A) are very similar to the personalities of the other children in their adoptive families.
B) are very similar to the personalities of their biologically related siblings.
C) are not very similar to the personalities of their adoptive parents.
D) are more similar to the personalities of their caregiving adoptive parents than to the
personalities of their biological parents.
E) are usually not related to their temperaments.
50. Four-year-old Karen can't remember anything of the first few months of her life. This is
best explained by the fact that
A) the trauma of birth interfered with the subsequent formation of memories.
B) most brain cells do not yet exist at the time of birth.
C) experiences shortly after birth are a meaningless blur of darkness and light.
D) she lacked language skills for organizing her early life experiences.
E) babies lack the hippocampus in the brain needed for memory development.
51. Providing children with a safe haven in times of stress contributes most directly to
A) habituation.
B) stranger anxiety.
C) object permanence.
D) secure attachment.
E) egocentrism.
52. Young children typically try to stay very close to their parents when they are in an
unfamiliar setting. This best illustrates the adaptive value of
A) habituation.
B) conservation.
C) the rooting reflex.
D) attachment.
E) egocentrism.

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53. Eighteen-month-old Justin follows his mother around the house, clinging tightly to her when
he is frightened. This best illustrates
A) object permanence.
B) attachment behavior.
C) stranger anxiety.
D) the rooting reflex.
E) habituation.
54. Research on racial and ethnic differences in intelligence indicates that
A) desegregation has actually decreased the academic achievement of black American
children.
B) the average mathematics achievement test scores of Asian children are notably higher
than those of North American children.
C) among American Blacks, those with African ancestry receive the highest intelligence
test scores.
D) the Black-White difference in SAT scores has increased since 1979.
E) the average vocabulary achievement test scores of North American and Asian children
are about the same.
55. Twelve-year-old Benjy has an IQ of 75 on the original version of the Stanford-Binet. His
mental age is
A) 8.
B) 9.
C) 10.
D) 12.
E) 16.
56. If a test yields consistent results every time it is used, it has a high degree of
A) standardization.
B) predictive validity.
C) reliability.
D) content validity.
E) heritability.
57. Academic aptitude test scores are most likely to predict accurately the academic success of
________ students.
A) pre-school
B) elementary school
C) high school
D) college
E) graduate school

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58. In very stressful or embarrassing situations, Sanura is able to maintain her poise and help
others to feel comfortable. Sanura's ability best illustrates the value of
A) extrinsic motivation.
B) heritability.
C) divergent thinking.
D) savant syndrome.
E) emotional intelligence.
59. Those who define intelligence as academic aptitude are most likely to criticize
A) Terman's concept of innate intelligence.
B) Spearman's concept of general intelligence.
C) Binet's concept of mental age.
D) Gardner's concept of multiple intelligences.
E) Sternberg's concept of analytical intelligence.
60. Her behavior best illustrates a low level of
A) convergent thinking.
B) validity.
C) the g factor.
D) mental age.
E) emotional intelligence.

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Answer Key - Practice Midterm

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